Today in APIs: ShepHertz Launches APIs for Time and Gift Management in Apps

Shephertz supports developers with BaaS APIs for Time Service and gift management. Apple seeks to overhaul its map APIs. Plus: Hackathons and the new machine learning platform, and Apigee issues a global API challenge.

ShepHertz Adds Two APIs for Gift and Time Management

Shephertz, a backend as a service supplier has added two APIs to its list of 500+ backend APIs designed for games and apps across multiple operating systems. The company's cloud management platform supports apps in gaming, data storage, social push, use management and others. App Data management is through AppHQ.

Timer Service will facilitate the developers to create & maintain time in their apps/games. Here, all the APIs create and maintain status of the timer on App42 Cloud so that developers do not have to uphold it on the client side. More to it, as a developer you do not have to write any business logic to manage the Timer. Using this service one can create, delete, start, stop and check the status of Timer by calling the corresponding APIs. On the other hand, App42 Gift Management Service facilitates complete gift controlling for any mobile & web App. This service allows the developer to create, retrieve, update and distribute gifts to the users. With these APIs, developers will definitely be able to create a better App with much lesser worries.

Apple's Overhaul of Maps Back End Implies Big Changes Coming

Apple is overhauling the APIs that govern its maps, according to Appleinsider. Apple claims, "We're overhauling things front-to-back and want engineers that live and (breathe) distributed systems and services."

As Neil Hughes reports, new job postings portend something big:

Apple isn't just looking to revamp the backend for its Maps service, as the company is actively changing the data it presents to customers on a daily basis. This week, users discovered that Apple has been pushing out updates at 3 a.m. Eastern to update points of interests, roads and other mapping data, with some of the changes suggested by user reports.

Apple specifically mentions "big plans" for its maps APIs. Given Apple's reputation for creating new markets, perhaps we'll see an entire marketplace/subsection of the App Store devoted to maps in a year or two.